One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by Stephen Lavis and Geraldine McCaughrean - Illustrated Paperback

Day after day King Shahryar marries a new wife, only to have her put to death the following morning. Hundreds of wives have died before Shahrazad comes along. On the night of her wedding, Shahrazad begins to tell the king a story. But she hasn't time to complete it, she says. She'll tell him more the next night, and then there is another story after that. Night after night. Can Shahrazad tell stories so wonderful that the king will want to listen to them instead of cutting off her head?

This is a completely new version of the Arabian Nights: many of the stories are told here for the first time in a collection for children. They include fables, romances, jokes, and fairy tales, and they are linked together by the king and queen's own love story. Geraldine McCaughrean's style is clear and poetic, conveying the flavor of the original, and the context of a magic, jinni-ridden desert world.